cirque

/\siʁk\/ noun

Letters

6 characters

Frequency Rank

#4,922

in French word usage

Misspellings

7

tracked variants

Confusables

17

similar word pairs

cirque is aFrenchnoun. It means: Lieu destiné, chez les Romains, à accueillir les jeux publics, et particulièrement les diverses formes de lutte et les courses de chevaux et de chars. Pronounced \siʁk\. It ranks #4,922 in French word frequency. Often confused with crue and coque.

Key facts for cirque
PropertyValue
Headwordcirque
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\siʁk\
Letters6
Frequency rank#4,922
Misspellings tracked7
Confusable pairs17
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of cirque in French word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The French entry for cirque is 6 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \siʁk\. Corpus data places it at rank #4,922 in overall French word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 5 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 7 documented wrong-spelling variants for cirque, with forms such as "ccirque", "ciqrue", and "cirqeu". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 17 confusable-pair relationships, "crue", "coque", "claque", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct French form is cirque, spelled C-I-R-Q-U-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Lieu destiné, chez les Romains, à accueillir les jeux publics, et particulièrement les diverses formes de lutte et les courses de chevaux et de chars.
  2. 2
    Entreprise de spectacle qui organise des jeux et exercices de ce genre.
  3. 3
    Bassin de montagnes disposé circulairement.
  4. 4
    Situation chaotique ; désordre.
  5. 5
    Comportement outrancier ; exagération.

Synonyms

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: ccirque,ciqrue,cirqeu,cirqque,cirrque,ciruqe,icrque

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for cirque

Misspelling Variants of "cirque"

ccirque7ciqrue6cirqeu6cirqque7cirrque7ciruqe6icrque6
Misspelling Variants of "cirque"

Frequency rank: #4,922 in French

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "cirque"?
"cirque" is spelled C-I-R-Q-U-E. The IPA pronunciation is \siʁk\.
What does "cirque" mean?
As a noun, "cirque" means: Lieu destiné, chez les Romains, à accueillir les jeux publics, et particulièrement les diverses formes de lutte et les courses de chevaux et de chars.
What words are commonly confused with "cirque"?
"cirque" is commonly confused with "crue", "coque", "claque". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "cirque"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "cirque" is \siʁk\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "cirque" come from?
"cirque" is a French word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Nearby French words

Other entries that begin with the letter C in our French index:

Explore PlainSpell

Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.